Recalling Flacco before he made it big in NFL

Sunday

Feb 3, 2013 at 3:15 AM

By Mike ZHEPortsmouth Herald

It’s been more than six years since I missed a deadline for this newspaper, and I still hold Joe Flacco responsible.

The Baltimore Ravens quarterback has used this postseason to insert his name into the conversation about the game’s best at that position. His numbers in AFC playoff wins against the Colts, Broncos and Patriots: 853 yards, eight touchdowns, no interceptions

But for University of New Hampshire fans, he’ll always be a link to one of the greatest — and latest — games in program history, a 52-49 win by the Wildcats in Newark, Del., on Sept. 30, 2006.

Let’s revisit it.

UNH football was white-hot that fall. The season before, it had been ranked No. 1 in Division I-AA for the first time ever, earned the top seed for the national playoffs and set a program record with 11 wins.

With players like quarterback Ricky Santos, wide receiver David Ball and cornerback Corey Graham (more on him later) all back, expectations were high again in 2006. Three weeks earlier, they had opened their season by winning at Northwestern, a Division I-A school from the Big 10, by a 34-17 score.

It was also a return to the scene of the crime for Santos, whose legend had begun at Delaware Stadium two years, when he stepped in for the injured Mike Granieri and practically became a star overnight. That’s why I was flying into Philadelphia on the Friday before the game instead of covering high school soccer.

The stage was set perfectly. On one side was Santos, the established star who would go on to win the Walter Payton Award that year as the best player in I-AA; plus Ball, who was on the verge of breaking Jerry Rice’s college record for touchdown receptions.

“I remember vividly (then-Delaware coach) K.C. Keeler talking about Santos and Ball that week, what players they were,” said UNH coach Sean McDonnell, “and then me reminding Corey Graham he was a pretty good football player, too.”

On the other side was Flacco, a 6-foot-5 Pittsburgh transfer expected to follow in the footsteps of other Delaware greats at QB, including Andy Hall, Rich Gannon and Scott Brunner (whom this 11-year-old sportswriter-to-be adamantly believed should be starting over Phil Simms back in the day).

Throw in a prime-time start (7 p.m.) and a full house of 22,000 fans — many of whom had spent all afternoon tailgating in the sprawling parking lots around the stadium — and the stage was set perfectly. Sports Illustrated was even on the media list.

And then the game went out and lived up to all the hype.

Tied 21-21 at halftime, Flacco led the Blue Hens on an 82-yard scoring drive to go up 27-21. But the lead was short-lived, as Graham returned the ensuing kickoff 99 yards for a score, atoning for an earlier fumbled punt.

Santos, playing what some fans called his best game ever, put the ’Cats up 45-34 by leading back-to-back touchdown drives in the fourth quarter. But Flacco wouldn’t roll over, twice leading his team back within a score before running out of time.

“We were throwing the kitchen sink at them,” said Keeler afterward.

The teams combined for nearly 1,000 yards of offense. Flacco was 28-of-45 for 315 yards, three scores and no picks. Santos passed for 281 yards and ran for 110 more. In the press box, every time a writer on deadline got comfortable with his opening paragraphs, momentum would shift.

“We kept making one more play than they were going to make,” recalled McDonnell. “The whole thing just kept going back and forth. Just a great CAA game in a great atmosphere.”

Three of the participants from that game are big national news these days. Flacco and Graham — now teammates on the Ravens — will try to beat the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII. Then-UNH offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, who would leave for Oregon five months later, was named head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles last month.

Graham is just the fourth UNH guy to play in a Super Bowl, after Pittsburgh Steelers fullback Dan Kreider, Denver Broncos linebacker Scott Curtis and Dallas Cowboys linebacker Bruce Huther.

“It feels amazing,” Graham told Seacoast Media Group writer Ryan O’Leary after last week’s upset of the Patriots. “We came in here, no one thought we could do it, and we did the impossible.”

There was a postscript to that meeting in Newark. A year later, Delaware came to Cowell Stadium to play UNH, which was minus both Kelly, who’d left for Oregon, and Santos, who was knocked out early with a shoulder injury. Flacco went 40-of-51 for a school-record 419 yards, but much of it came after the fact in a 35-30 loss.

Even in defeat, his maturity was evident. With his team in a rush to get to the airport afterward, he fielded questions right on the field, took blame for his team’s slow start and paid compliments to the UNH defense.

On Sunday, Flacco will play a stage much bigger than Delaware or Cowell Stadium, against one of the best defenses he’s seen in his life.

Lots of people in these parts will be interested to see how he does.

Mike Zhe is a Seacoast Media Group staff writer. He can be reached at mzhe@seacoastonline.com.